Zeolite + Carbon

[shadyraro]

Does anyone run zeolite and carbon in a reactor?
I was at a LFS last week and a guy who worked there told me they run zeolite and activated carbon in reactors in their shop tanks, and he even gave me a small bucket of zeolite for free to try out. He said it keeps ammonia, phosphates and nitrates under control and any other bad stuff that's in the water column. So I'm wondering if this is a common practise people do, good or bad and whether or not I should try it, and FYI my nitrates are on the high end currently.

 

[biom]

Does anyone run zeolite and carbon in a reactor?
I was at a LFS last week and a guy who worked there told me they run zeolite and activated carbon in reactors in their shop tanks, and he even gave me a small bucket of zeolite for free to try out. He said it keeps ammonia, phosphates and nitrates under control and any other bad stuff that's in the water column. So I'm wondering if this is a common practise people do, good or bad and whether or not I should try it, and FYI my nitrates are on the high end currently.

Not sure I fully understand the question.
Is it:
Is it OK running zeolite and GAC in the same reactor?
or:
Is it OK to run zeolite?

 

[shadyraro]

Not sure I fully understand the question.
Is it:
Is it OK running zeolite and GAC in the same reactor?
or:
Is it OK to run zeolite?

Sorry, I meant just running zeolite in your tank in general. There doesn’t seem to be much written about it on here, and I wanted to know if people do use it. Running it together with carbon shouldn’t be an issue I don’t think either.

 

[SDReefer77]

I would hope so with the number of people that use Chemi-Pure Blue.

 

[shadyraro]

I would hope so with the number of people that use Chemi-Pure Blue.

Isn’t chemipure basically carbon?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I would hope so with the number of people that use Chemi-Pure Blue.

There is no zeolite in Chemipure Blue. I also would not accept the Chemipure Blur claims relating to phosphate as accurate, but it's a fine way to bind organics, if that is your goal.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sorry, I meant just running zeolite in your tank in general. There doesn’t seem to be much written about it on here, and I wanted to know if people do use it. Running it together with carbon shouldn’t be an issue I don’t think either.

I don't see any benefit to using a zeolite in a reef tank unless, like zeovit, you are using it as a place for bacteria to grow when dosing organic carbon.

If you have a problem with excessive nitrate, there are far better ways to deal with it than binding a small amount of ammonia to a zeolite. It is not going to bind appreciable phosphate.

 

[shadyraro]

I don't see any benefit to using a zeolite in a reef tank unless, like zeovit, you are using it as a place for bacteria to grow when dosing organic carbon.

If you have a problem with excessive nitrate, there are far better ways to deal with it than binding a small amount of ammonia to a zeolite. It is going to bind appreciable phosphate.

Thanks Randy, looks like the zeolite can stay in the bucket. With high nitrates (mine are 30) what would be the best way of reducing them? All but one of my corals seem to be thriving (a torch is looking bleached) and I don’t know if the nitrates are the issue. All the other parameters are within acceptable ranges using Hanna and salifert.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Randy, looks like the zeolite can stay in the bucket. With high nitrates (mine are 30) what would be the best way of reducing them? All but one of my corals seem to be thriving (a torch is looking bleached) and I don’t know if the nitrates are the issue. All the other parameters are within acceptable ranges using Hanna and salifert.

I doubt 30 ppm nitrate is causing bleached coral. Make sure phosphate is not too low.

Good ways to reduce nitrate are organic carbon dosing, skimming more or other organic export methods, growing macroalgae and other algae growth methods, deep sand beds, carbon and sulfur denitrators, and denitrifying media.

This has more:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION

Nitrate is an ion that has long dogged aquarists. It is typically formed in aquaria through the digestion of foods, and in many aquaria it builds up and can be difficult to keep at natural levels. In the past, many aquarists performed water changes with nitrate reduction as one of the primary...

www.reefedition.com

 

[shadyraro]

I doubt 30 ppm nitrate is causing bleached coral. Make sure phosphate is not too low.

Good ways to reduce nitrate are organic carbon dosing, skimming more or other organic export methods, growing macroalgae and other algae growth methods, deep sand beds, carbon and sulfur denitrators, and denitrifying media.

This has more:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium - REEFEDITION

Nitrate is an ion that has long dogged aquarists. It is typically formed in aquaria through the digestion of foods, and in many aquaria it builds up and can be difficult to keep at natural levels. In the past, many aquarists performed water changes with nitrate reduction as one of the primary...

www.reefedition.com

Thanks, these are my parameters from yesterday. I also run activated carbon in a small reactor, tank is 65g.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Those values seem fine, though bringing down nitrate seems prudent to me.

 

[Miami Reef]

If you have a problem with excessive nitrate, there are far better ways to deal with it than binding a small amount of ammonia to a zeolite. It is going to bind appreciable phosphate.

Wait, did I read that correctly? Are you saying zeolites bind a lot of phosphates? I always thought zeolites didn’t adsorb PO4.

 

[shadyraro]

Those values seem fine, though bringing down nitrate seems prudent to me.

I’ll just leave it be for now, the tank is looking fine apart from the one coral and the fish and inverts seem fine. Thanks Randy.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Wait, did I read that correctly? Are you saying zeolites bind a lot of phosphates? I always thought zeolites didn’t adsorb PO4.

You read it right, but I wrote it wrong. lol It's a not.

 

[biom]

Sorry, I meant just running zeolite in your tank in general. There doesn’t seem to be much written about it on here, and I wanted to know if people do use it. Running it together with carbon shouldn’t be an issue I don’t think either.

There are or at least there were lot of people especially in Europe using zeolites so called Zeovit method with great success. Some of the best SPS tanks were running Zeo. It is kind of religion . Korallen Zucht, Fauna Marin, Aquaforest still offer zeolites and provide methodology (program).
But agree zeolite will not solve high nitrate problem.

 

[biom]

I don't see any benefit to using a zeolite in a reef tank unless, like zeovit, you are using it as a place for bacteria to grow when dosing organic carbon.

I dont agree Zeovit method is based on organic carbon dosing. None of the "basic four" supplements (ZeoBak, ZeoFood, ZeoStart and Zeolites) contains significant amount of organic carbon. I would say the amount of acetic acid in there is equivalent of few drops of vinegar in 26 gal of water which is practically nothing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I dont agree Zeovit method is based on organic carbon dosing. None of the "basic four" supplements (ZeoBak, ZeoFood, ZeoStart and Zeolites) contains significant amount of organic carbon. I would say the amount of acetic acid in there is equivalent of few drops of vinegar in 26 gal of water which is practically nothing.

I'm not claiming it is based on organic carbon dosing, but I don't think the zeolite does anything useful beyond providing a place for bacteria.

What do you think it does?

 

[biom]

I'm not claiming it is based on organic carbon dosing, but I don't think the zeolite does anything useful beyond providing a place for bacteria.

What do you think it does?

I know we are disusing this from decades but I do believe zeolites are removing part of the ammonia from the saltwater preventing it from converting to nitrate.

We can continue discussion in this threads:

Do Zeolite work in sea water?

I know Randy's strong opinion that zeolites are useless in salt water and they are serving mostly as substrate for bacteria :) but in this particular case I'm not fully agree. Actually zeolites (and particularly sodium–potassium forms like clinoptilolite) do work in salt water - they do remove...

www.reef2reef.com

Interesting Zeolite/nutrient thread in SPS forum - Page 5 - Reef Central Online Community Archives

Page 5- Interesting Zeolite/nutrient thread in SPS forum The Reef Chemistry Forum

archive.reefcentral.com

 

[biom]

You read it write, but I wrote it wrong. lol It's a not.

Not sure I get that.
It is interesting to know your opinion on phosphate removal by zeolites. There were some papers (wastewater treatment related) stating zeolites can remove maximum 0.03 mg phosphorus per 1 gram zeolite which is not big deal but still something.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I know we are disusing this from decades but I do believe zeolites are removing part of the ammonia from the saltwater preventing it from converting to nitrate.

But is that a benefit? And does it bind even at the very low levels of ammonia typically present?

Any a capacity note, do you know how much zeolite is added how often, and has anyone calculated if the capacity at some low level of ammonia in seawater provides a meaningful effect?